Miss Tennessee Volunteer: Friday night winners

One preliminary winner from Friday night won her favorite part of the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship Pageant, while the other made history on behalf of her college.

Miss Middle Tennessee Valley Elise Stein and Miss Lane College Shannel DeFoe will take momentum from their victories on Friday night into the final night of the competition, when Miss Tennessee Volunteer 2019 will be crowned.

Stein was the Lifestyle & Fitness winner, picking up a win in the swimsuit competition.

“This is my favorite part of the pageant because of all the work that goes in to winning it,” Stein said. “It’s so empowering to take the benefits of all that work I put in to make myself look as good as I possibly could, and then to go out and show that is an empowering experience.”

Stein said she put a lot of work into it including two workouts per day at a local gym called Boot Camp at 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. many days leading up to the pageant.

The 2019 edition of the pageant is the second for Lane College to have a representative after a two-decade hiatus from the competition.

So for DeFoe to represent the Dragons with the Friday night talent win was special for her.

“To represent an HBCU and my college, Lane College, with this is really special for me,” DeFoe said.

She admitted she would’ve preferred not to open the night’s talent competition with her dance performance to Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good,” but the blind draw indicated that was her time.

“I was afraid they might forget about me because I went so early, but they apparently didn’t,” DeFoe said with a laugh.

Miss Tennessee Volunteer 2019 will conclude on Saturday with the crowning of the next pageant winner.

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.